Combined container and dispenser having an expansible wrapper



United States Patent [72] Inventor Leo V. Maisonneu'v'e 500 Saint PeterSt New Orleans, La. 70116 [21] Appl. No. 728,540 [22] Filed May 13, 1968[45] Patented Dec. 29, I970 [54] COMBINED CONTAINER AND DISPENSER HAVINGAN EXPANSIBLE WRAPPER 18 Claims, 10 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 221/25, 206/56: 229/87 [51] Int. Cl B65d 85/74 [50] FieldoiSearch 221/70, 25; 206/56A, 56A3, 56A4, Lifter; 53/(Inquired);229/87F, 87M

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,409,362 [0/1946 Kleinmann206/46 Primary Examiner--Robert B. Reeves Assistant Examiner-David A.Scherbel Attorney-Lake & Pugh ABSTRACT: A container and dispenser forsuch things as butter, margarine, cheese and the like, having a centralcore defining four chambers for holding four sticks of table spread orthe like between dimpled side members, each stick being wrapped in paperwrappers affixed to the central core and having diagonal or longitudinalZ-folds; wherein the spread is quickly and easily dispensed by pullingthe wrapper taunt, thereby extending the folds and separating thewrapper from the spread, and ejecting the spread into a waitingcontainer. To further aid in separating the wrapper from the spread, theside folds or flaps are folded so that the first flap placed undertension when the wrapper is pulled taut is the inner most flap and so onin sequence.

PmEma-numzslsm 3550.809

SHEET 1 (IF 3 :1 11 INVENTOR LEO V. MAISONNEUVE ATTORNEYSPATENTEUBEBZSIQYB v 3550.809

SHEET 2 OF 3 VIIIIIUIIIIIIIIII III! III! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIA:

LEO V. MAISONNEUVE BY j %e &

ATTORNEYS INVENTOR PATENTEDBEMQIQYB 3550.809

SHEET 3 OF 3 will/1111111111111 VIII! I IIIIIIIIIIII'I'I'IA INVENTOR LEOV. MAISONNEUVE BY %e &

ATTORNEYS COMBINED CONTAINER AND DISPENSER HAVING AN EXPANSIBLE WRAPPERwrapped objects held on or by a base member, particularly.

those in which the object has a tendency to stick or cling to thewrapper. More specifically the invention has found particularapplication in providing a container for table spreads such as butter,margarine, cheese and the-like from which the spread can be easilydispensed or ejected without directly touching the spread and thedisclosure "will be particularly directed thereto. I v i However, theprinciples of the invention can be applied to any situation in whichthere is a desirability of quickly and easily dispensing or ejecting awrapped object carried on or by a base member. v

Heretofore table spreads have been commonly packaged in boxes containingfour or more individually wrapped sticks and in such instances it hasbeen necessary to physically remove from the box and proceed to unwrapmanually the various folds of the wrap which tends to cling to thespread particularly when the spread is relatively soft. In unwrappingthe spread, the consumer often had direct physical or personal contactwith the spread causing messy hands and contaminated spread. Suchpackaging and manual dispensing has been unsatisfactory for obviousreasons and the present invention overcomes these problems.

It is thus a basic object of the present invention to provide acontainer or base member for one or more objects from which the objectcan be quickly and easily dispensed without necessitating the manualhandling of the object.

It is a further object to provide a wrapper foran object on a base or ina container which has special release features whereby, quick and easyseparation of the object from the' dimple is adequate.

parent from the detailed description belowtaken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings in vwhichi FIG. I is perspective view of theinvention as embodied in a container and s dispenser for four sticks oftable spread;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are side views of the'embodiment of FIG. 1 showing thefirst leading edge of the wrapper extended away from the container andhorizontal and then extended its full length, respectively; v

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the inner core of the embodiment of FIG.I; Y

' FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a suitable wrapper with the folded areasindicated by phantom lines;

j FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the Z-fold of the wrapper, takenalong sectional lines 6-6 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the details of the grasping,leading edge of the initial wrapper;

FIG. 8 is a side view of the invention with the side member of the innercore removed to show the end flaps of the wrappers;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of FIG. I with thewrappers having longitudinal folds rather than diagonal ones; and

FIG. 10 is a crow-sectional view taken along sectional lines 10-10 ofFIG. 9 similar in view to fig FIG. 6.

The invention has found particular utility as a'container and dispenserfor table spreads such as butter or margarine and, as such, theinvention as shown in FIGS. land 4 includes basically an inner coremember 1 consisting of horizontal 1" and vertical I" members and towhich is attached two side members 2 which define four elongatedchambers 3 designed to hold, support and protect four sticks 4 of tablespread. Each of the side members 2 are din'ipled inwardly at the fourareas 5 adjacent the sticks 4 of table spread so as to engage the sticksEach stick 4 of table spread is wrapped in paper or some other suitablematerial having diagonal V-folds 6, that is, folds whose axes are notparallel to the longitudinal axis of the stick 4 and form a V-shape.These folds 6 are also'Z-folds, that is, folds in which the material isat least doubly folded back on itself (note FIG. 6). The Z-fold 6 aidsincausing a quick, clean release or separation of the wrapper from thetable spread when the fold is expanded and pulled taut. Having'theZ-fold in a path diagonal and intersecting to form a V-pattem insuresthat the folded areas 7 between the wrapper 8 all intersect'orinterconnect and that there will be positive releasing areas throughoutthe entire length and breadth of the wrapped stick 4. The wrapper 8 isfurther cut with a curved outline at its lower extremity 14 to preventtears in the wrapper8 from forming. The wrapper 8 is secured to theinner core I by any appropriate means, for example, by adhesive portions9 being glued to the shelf portion of the inner core either on the underside of the shelf in the adjacent chamber or near the edge of the upperside on which the wrapped stick sits. The wrapper il-' lustrated in FIG.5 is cut for the former. Because of the intersection of the two sets ofdiagonal folds a-lateral crimp or ridge 13 is formed which can be foldedover and provides an auxiliary releasing action.

The sticks 4, as shown in FIG. 8 are wrapped at their ends-in I much thesame manner as is standard in the art except that to further aid .inreleasing the wrapper 8 from the table spread 4" the end flaps arefolded in a particular sequence. That is, in

released is folded on top of A, C on top of B and'D on top of C,

D then being the outermost flap. As an alternative, rather than foldingthe end flaps over the end of the stick 4-, the flaps could be foldedover, and attached, for example, by heat scaling, to the side members 2.As a further alternative, the end flaps could be eliminated altogetherwith'the ends of the stick 4 being covered by the side member 2directly.

The table spread is dispensed and ejected from its container in thefollowing manner. The leading edge 10 of the initial stick 4 to bereleased is grasped by the fingers with the container being held fastand is raised up away from the container (note FIG. 2). In the samemotion the wrapper 8 is fully extended and in the process the tablespread 4 is dispensed out of the container and ejected into a waitingreceptable 11 (note After the initial stick.4 is dispensed, theleadingedge 10'- of the second stick 4" to be dispensed is exposed. Thesecond stick 4" canbe ejected after rotating the container ninetydegrees in a clockwise direction (from the perspective of FIG. 8) in thesame manner as the initial stick 4', that is, by grasping the leadingedge 10' and pulling it taut. After each stick 4 is dispensed, thewrapper 8 can be torn off and disposed of. Appropriate weakened areas orperforation in the wrapper can be provided for this purpose.

As shown in FIG. 9, a second embodiment of the invention, similar to theembodiment of FIGS. 1-8, utilizes a wrapper having longitudinal folds12, that is, folds which generally are parallel to the longitudinal axisof the stick of table spread. The folds 12, as shown in FIG. 10, areZ-type folds which when extended aid in causing a quick, cleanseparation of the stick from the wrapper. The advantage of thelongitudinal type fold lies in the relative ease of producing such foldsin the wrapper, while'the advantage of the diagonal V-folds lies in thegreater and more extensive release areas 7. A further alternative offold design which, has some of the advantages of each of the foldsillustrated is a set of parallel diagonal folds, that is, folds whichare parallel to each other and not parallel to the longitudinal axis ofthe stick but, in like the V-style, do not intersect. I

In manufacturing the container of the present invention manyadvantageous techniques are possible For example, the

inner core 1 with the side members 2 can be molded as an integral pieceof plastic in which the side members exhibit a flexibility which ishighly desirable, resulting in a more dynamic dimple and permittinggreater ease of dispensing or insertion during packaging. To furtherprotect the table spread during shipping and consumer handling, an outersheath could be a boxlike member, open at least one end, which could beslid on and off as desired. Another protective feature would be toprovide the container shown in FIG. 1 or 9 with a removable lateral bandwhich would insure that the sticks would not fall out accidentally.Moreover, to aid in mass production of the invention each stick could bewrapped uniformly so that all could be designed to extend around to theinitial face of the stick so as to provide an overlapping position onthe initial face. Likewise, the material of the wrapper is a matter ofsome choice and includes besides paper and other materials comtnon inthe act, elastic and stretchable. material. In fact in the latterinstance, the folds are not required.

" Many other variations in the details of the invention beside theexemplary ones indicated above may be made without separating from thescope and spirit of the invention and the same should be measured onlyby the scope of the claims in H light of the disclosure which appearsbelow.

.l claim:

1. A combined holder and dispenser for at least one extended objecthaving a longitudinal axis comprising a base member for said object anda wrapping member being attached to said base member and wrapped aroundsaid object and being expansible, said wrapping member includes at leastone Z-fold to provide expansibility, said Z-fold being disposeddiagonally to the longitudinal axis of said object; whereby when saidwrapping member is expanded, said object is dispensed or ejected fromsaid base member.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein there is a set of multiple Z-foldsdisposed parallel to each other.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein said wrapper further includes anadditional set of multiple parallel and diagonal Z- folds disposed at anangle to and which intersect the first set.

4. A combined holder and dispenser for at least one object comprising abase member for said object and a wrapping member for said object, saidwrapping member being expansible, said wrapping member including aseries of end flaps which are folded over the preceding end flap in thesame sequence as the end flaps are released as the wrapper is expanded;whereby when said wrapping member is expanded said object is dispensedor ejected from said base member and whereby the innermost end flap isthe first to release during the expansion of the wrapper;

5. A combination holder and dispenser for at least one elongated objectcomprising a base member which holds and supports the object and awrapping member attached to said base member and in which the object iswrapped, said wrapping member including expansible means for aiding inthe release of said wrapping member from the object during dispensing,

said expansible means comprising at least one Z-fold, the bottom leg ofthe .Z-t'old being in face-to-face contact with the surface of saidobject; whereby the-object can be easily and quickly dispensed from saidbase member and whereby the Z- folds contact with the surface of theobject, aids in the releas.

ing of the wrapping member from said object.

6. The combination of claim 5 wherein said expansible; means furtherincludes a set of parallel folds having Z-eross sections. i

7. Thecombination of claim 6 wherein 'said set of parallel folds aredisposed parallel to the longitudinal axis of said 'object.

'8. The combination of claim ;6. wherein said set of parallel folds aredisposed diagonally tothe lon 'tudinal axis.

9; The combination of claim 8 w an angle to and which intersect thefirst set of parallel folds.

10. A combined container and dispenser for a table spread inmultiple-stick form numbering four sticks comprising: an= extended innercore member comprising two crossed, flat attached at one of its ends tothe bottom leg of each chamber,

wall; each wrapper including initiating means at its other end forgrasping and pulling to produce relative motion between said wrapper andsaid inner core; whereby a wrapped stick can be easily and quicklydispensed from its chamber by grasping said initiating means and pullingit taut.

11. The container of claim 10 wherein said wrapper further includes amultiple number of end flaps for folding over the end of the stick, saidend flaps being folded over each other in the same sequence as the end 1flaps are released as said wrapper is pulled taut; whereby-the innermostendflap is the first to release during the pulling of the wrapper.

12. The combination of claim 10 wherein said inner core member furtherincludes two generally parallel flexible side members for holding thesticks in said chambers under compression.

13.The combination of claim 12 wherein said side members are dimpled toproduce the requisite compression.

14. The combination of claimlO wherein each said wrapper is expansibleand includes at least one Z-fold to provide the expansibility, thebottom leg of the Z-fold being in face-toface contact with the surfaceof the stick; whereby the Z-folds contact with the surface of the stickaids in the releasing of the wrapper from the stick when the wrapper ispulled taut.

15. The combination of claim 14 wherein each wrapper includes a seriesof said Z-folds. Y

16. The combination of claim 15 wherein said Z-folds are disposedparallel to the longitudinal axis of the stick.

l7. The combination of claim 15 wherein said Z-folds are parallel andare disposed diagonal to the longitudinal axis of the stick.

18. The combination of claim 17 wherein each saidwrapper erein saidexpansible means includes an additional set of parallel Z-folds disposedat

